1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a binaural stethoscope allowing surrounding noises to be heard.
2. Background Art
It is known that binaural stethoscopes have two earpieces which are each intended to bear against the entrance to the auditory channels of a practitioner and which are connected to an endpiece for capturing sounds, said endpiece being placed by said practitioner on certain areas of the body of a patient. For this purpose, the practitioner holds the endpiece in one of his hands and places it against the body of the patient during auscultation. The two earpieces are connected to the endpiece for capturing sounds via a route for transmission of the captured sounds, which route generally comprises two rigid tubular branches which at one end support the earpieces and which at the other end are joined to said endpiece via a flexible T-tube system forming part of said transmission route.
When the practitioner has put said earpieces into his ears and has placed the endpiece against the body of the patient, he does not hear, or at least does not hear distinctly, the surrounding noises, but only the sounds emanating from the body of the patient and being transmitted to him via the stethoscope.
Under these conditions, when the patient speaks to the practitioner during auscultation, said practitioner cannot catch what is being said to him. Now, experience has shown that during this type of auscultation patients express themselves more openly to their practitioner and provide him with information which is useful in establishing a diagnosis. Of course, the practitioner is then forced to remove at least one of the earpieces from his ear and to ask the patient to repeat what has just been said. The spell is then broken, and the patient does not repeat the same confidences exactly or even remains silent.
Furthermore, during auscultation, external noises from the surroundings may interfere with the sounds being listened to by the practitioner through the stethoscope, and the practitioner may well want to know the exact nature of the sound interference.